Exhibitions2026THE WAY WE LIVE

What does home mean to you? Where do you feel most at home? How does home shape your identity and make you feel safe? How does it provide the space for you to be creative?

80 years ago, Plymouth was emerging from the shadow of the Blitz. Planner Patrick Abercrombie and Plymouth City Engineer and Surveyor James Paton Watson’s ‘A Plan for Plymouth’ (1943) had outlined ambitious ideas for the rebuilding of the city, while Jill Craigie’s film ‘The Way We Live’ (1946) was showing what post-war family life looked like, and had taken a radical approach by engaging local residents rather than professional actors to ask questions about how people wanted to live.

Now, in 2026, the city stands on the threshold of another era of major regeneration – one that isn’t just thinking about years but decades.

As Plymouth embarks on this defining new chapter The Way We Live uses archival collections, sculpture, installation, painting, photography and film to explore ideas of home, housing and community and consider the wider debate about how we want to live in the future.

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